The Sanford prison was unrelated to the death of a Capitol policeman, Brian Sicknick, who was allegedly hit in the head by a fire extinguisher, according to two police officers.
At the end of the day, charges were brought against a man accused of beating a police officer on Capitol Hill with an American flagpole. According to a criminal complaint, the man, Peter Stager, claimed that he thought the victim of the assault was a member of Antifa, the loose group of left-wing activists who often fought with far-right protesters, although the words “Metropolitan Police “were clearly written on the official’s uniform.
“Everyone there is a traitorous traitor,” said Stager, in an apparent reference to the Capitol, according to a video obtained by the FBI “Death is the only remedy for what is in that building.”
Even while looking for new leads and suspects, federal investigators also sought to verify an incendiary charge brought up this week by several lawmakers: that some members of Congress helped coordinate the attack.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey and a former Navy pilot, called for an investigation, with more than 30 of his colleagues, on what they described as “suspicious” visits by groups outside the Capitol in the eve of the tumult at a time when most tours were restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, another lawmaker, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said she personally witnessed a visit to the building before the January 6 attack by people who were “Trump supporters”.
A policeman said investigators had yet to find any evidence that members of Congress were involved in planning the attack and warned that the investigation is vast and that all clues need to be examined carefully.
The flood of arrests and investigations added an air of nervousness to a city that already seemed under siege. The area around the National Mall on Thursday was crowded with military vehicles and isolated from its surroundings by imposing expanses of metal fences, creating what the Secret Service agent in charge of inaugural security called “a bubble that is safe and secure. protected “.